Well, he's always given money for a long time to cancer
research. He gave money to the Salk Institute. He built a building
for cancer research at Columbia University. Now he's interested
in viruses and the possibility of a vaccine, and when he gets an
idea it stays with him, and he can urge people to take some action.

Q:

He's got almost as much driving force as you have.

Lasker:

Oh, much more. He's got a lot more money of his own that
he can make something happen with.

Q:

Yes, I know he's got a lot of money, and he also has Russian
connections.

Lasker:

Yes, but they're not going to do anything just yet about
it I don't think, unless we've already shown it's very successful.

Q:

Well, now, what is this President's Commission that he heads?

Lasker:

Well, that's part of the Cancer Act of '71. We had to have
a President's Commission in order to get the act passed. We had
to have somebody who could more or less oversee what was going on
so that the President could get it through Congress, believe it or
not, and this was put into legislation really by Rogers, Congressman
Rogers of Florida. He's now in Washington, D.C. So that's